How to Break a Viking's Heart
by jackfrostbeliever
Summary: Hiccup once had it all, a best friend, a girlfriend, the pride of his father, and the respect of his tribe. Bu it all ended the day Astrid died. After Hiccup's downward spiral, Stoick decided Hiccup needed someone. Merida and Heidi go head to head in a battle for Hiccup's heart. But is Hiccup's heart really what Heidi is after?


"You're going to be a very important Viking some day," said Camille the Fair, holding her four-year-old son on her lap. He had her green eyes and a mixture of her hair and Stoick's. Hiccup had his father's nose, and his mother's freckles. He gave a gap-toothed smile at the compliment. "For now, your father thinks it's brawn before brains, but we'll change his mind. He'll see how clever you are. He'll learn that even strength must bow to wisdom. You'll be the most caring chief we've ever had."

Hiccup liked that idea. He knew that his dad thought that if you weren't strong, you might as well get out. Brains were undervalued by Stoick the Vast. Of course, he loved his son, and he loved his wife, but if Hiccup didn't prove to be strong and fearsome, he'd have another son that was. When Stoick had been Hiccup's age, he'd popped a dragon's head clean off it's shoulders. He thought that was what a real chief could do.

As time went on, Hiccup showed less rather than more potential. Then things went sour. On a stormy day, during a regular old dragon raid, Camille fell in battle. Stoick held her as she died. Hiccup was six at the time, already Gobber's apprentice. He was at the shop when it happened, tucked out of the way. Stoick dreaded telling his fragile little boy the terrible news, but there was no avoiding it. Hiccup cried for one minute exactly until Stoick told him Vikings didn't cry.

From that day on, hiccup tried even harder to be a Viking, leading to bigger and bigger catastrophes taking place in the village every time he threw himself into a fight. The final straw was when he was fourteen, going about claiming that another one of his wacky inventions had successfully brought down a Night Fury. Stoick put him in dragon training in a last-ditch effort to make a Viking out of him. Of course, Stoick hadn't honestly expected it to work. Hiccup went on to be the one chosen to kill the Monstrous Nightmare. It was on that day that Stoick learned that everything had been a trick.

Hiccup really had brought down a Night Fury and had been learning from the creatures, never harming the dragons in the ring, only deterring them. Later on, all of Hiccup's knowledge came in handy. He rallied the teens, got them each a dragon, and they swooped in to the rescue in the fight against the Green Death. They defeated the Green Death. Amazingly, Hiccup managed to only lose his left foot, not get himself killed.

Once the dragons became integrated into the village, Hiccup finally showed promise as a chief. Only one thing was missing. Every chief needed a wife. When Hiccup turned eighteen, Stoick began pressing the matter. Fishlegs, Snoutlout, Ruff, and Tuff all teased him mercilessly about it. They knew that only one girl would ever be Hiccup's wife; Astrid Hofferson.

He was still in the process of gearing up to pop the question when she died. He cursed himself over and over for not asking sooner. He felt like crying, but he knew that Vikings didn't cry. Instead, he put up walls and shut everyone out. He became big-headed, misusing his cleverness, making weapons for war, not defense. He wasn't chief, but he threw his weight around, abused his privileges. Stoick knew his Hiccup wasn't coming back when he started hitting the liquor every night. Before Astrid died, he cringed at the smell of spirits, but now, every morning without fail, he was nursing a hang-over.

Stoick was seriously considering letting Snotlout be chief before he figured out that Hiccup needed a wife, one that he was actually in love with. Not a demure, obedient wife, but a wife that would lay down the law, a wife that would tolerate no funny-business. He sent out messengers to the farthest reaches of the world and got only two responses, one from Russia, one from Scotland.

They had sent portraits with their responses, as was normal. The Russian was the daughter of the most respected General in the country. She had long black hair, a pointed chin, big, blue eyes, and a regal composure. The Scottish girl was the princess. She has wild red hair, a round face, crystal blue eyes, and a fire in her eyes that reminded Stoick of his own wife's rebellious streak. He invited them both to visit Berk and the Hairy Hooligan tribe.

Hiccup was thoroughly against the idea. He didn't see the point in getting to know the girls. He could just pick any girl from the village. They would be honored, Hiccup assured Stoick, to be the chief's wife. Stoick knew better. No respectable woman would want a drunk for a husband, chief or no. The only logical solution was to cut him off. The taverns were forbidden to give or sell Hiccup any spirits, and anyone caught providing him with any were to be thrown in prison for a month. Hiccup was prepared for this, and had a stash in his cellar.

Before the tribe was completely prepared, the Russian arrived. She smiled, nodded, spoke an odd combination of Danish and Russian, and then disappeared into the house they'd prepared for her. She didn't come out. Hiccup was happy about that. That is, until the day the princess arrived.


End file.
